The Housing Project

It seems that every year when I visit my DD at Christmas, there is an involved Christmas project on the To-Do list.  This year....a dollhouse.  She found one on Craigslist that someone had started and then given up on...and after we saw the level of workmanship, we could understand why.  Think inches and inches of hot glue, wonky walls, kitty-wampus windows, and nothing painted or finished, which was ok by us.

 

So, the first step was to paint the house yellow, the trim white, and the roof grey.

 She had a friend cut the flat roof off, exposing the attic area.  We painted, and used scrapbook papers for the wall and area rug.  The attic was transformed into a playroom/classroom.

 Our only quibble with the size of the dollhouse was the depth...it was about 19" deep, and that's a long way for little arms to reach in.  But, we had lots of rooms to decorate and lots of fun deciding our color scheme.  We also put a base on caster wheels under the dollhouse so it would be easier to move around and easier to open.

 The left front of the house...

 The upstairs bedroom

 The living room, complete with fireplace (non-working, of course)

 The center rooms--bathroom and kitchen. 

 Love the black and white linoleum that she found. Our diner stools are wooden spools wrapped in aluminum foil, with painted bottle cap "seats". The sticker she found of the stove is perfect!

 The right side of the house, with the nursery area and a "study" behind the stairs.

 The nursery

 The study, which still needs some furniture

 We were rushed for time to get it finished, and weren't able to do everything she had in mind.  But a child's imagination is a MUCH better decorator than anything we could've done, and the girls were thrilled with their present.  Even 8-year old E wanted to play!  The girls spend HOURS playing with this; it is so much fun to listen in.